Non-Salary Administrative Expenses - Special Guidance
- Standard Treatment
- Examples of Non-Salary Administrative Expenses
- Treatment of Non-Salary Administrative Expenses in Special Circumstances
- Unlike Circumstance Criteria
- Examples of Unlike Circumstance
- Questions to Address When Justifying Administrative/Clerical Salaries
Standard Treatment
In accordance with OMB Circular A-21, UCI Research Policy on Budgeting and Charging Administrative Expenses to Sponsored Projects, and UCI Guidelines for Direct Charging Sponsored Projects, administrative/clerical salaries are considered F&A costs and should not be budgeted in proposals or charged to extramural awards (sponsored projects).
Examples of Non-Salary Administrative Expenses
The following list (which is not all inclusive) represents the most common, routine non-salary administrative expenses:
- Basic telephone line, equipment, installation and local telephone services
- General purpose equipment
- Mail stop charges
- Memberships and subscriptions
- Networking costs -- routine, behind the wall
- General administrative supplies
- Postage for office correspondence and delivery of proposals
- Normal repairs and maintenance services
- Service of equipment installed as part of state funded capital projects or an integral part of a central building service
- Utilities
Treatment of Non-Salary Administrative Expenses in Special Circumstances
Non-salary administrative expenses may be treated (budgeted and/or charged) as a direct cost if special circumstances exist, and where such circumstances necessitate or require that a project incur non-salary administrative expenses at a level significantly greater than what is routinely provided to every UCI sponsored project.
To treat an non-salary administrative expenses as a direct cost, the following conditions must be met:
- the sponsored project must satisfy the Unlike Circumstance criteria; and
- the non-salary administrative expenses can be specifically identified, with relative ease and a high degree of accuracy with the sponsored project; and
- the administering unit must maintain documentation that explains and supports items 1 and 2 above.
Unlike Circumstance Criteria
Unlike Circumstance exist when the scope of a project requires non-salary administrative expenses that are significantly greater than the routine level of support provided to every UCI sponsored project.
Examples of Unlike Circumstance
Following are examples of Unlike Circumstance where direct charging of non-salary administrative expenses may be appropriate:
- Mailing expenses for projects that involve a large survey.
- Departmental administrative supplies used for the production of manuals as described in the scope of work or required as a deliverable under the terms of an extramural award.
- Departmental administrative supplies required to conduct, tabulate and store the results of a survey identified in the scope of work of an extramural award.
- A membership fee required in order to subscribe to a journal, where the subscription is necessary for performing the work under a sponsored agreement.
- Telephone line charges for projects that are geographically inaccessible (i.e., where the geographical separation between the project work site and departmental administrative support would reasonably necessitate such an expense).
The above examples are neither exhaustive nor are they intended to imply that direct charging of these expenses would always be appropriate.
Questions to Address When Justifying Administrative/Clerical Salaries
When justifying administrative/clerical salaries in proposal budgets (or before charging such expenses to a sponsored project), it is helpful to address the following issues:
- Are the non-salary administrative needs of this project significantly greater than the routine level of non-salary administrative support provided for all projects? If so, why? Also, describe why it is necessary to incur the non-salary administrative expenses for the successful performance of the project.
- Can the proposed non-salary administrative expenses be easily and accurately allocated to the project? How will this be done? If non-salary administrative expenses benefit multiple projects, it may be difficult to accurately document the relative benefit of such expenses to any specific project.
